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Redding could give more to companies moving into Stillwater Business Park

Redding could boost incentives for companies moving into Stillwater Business Park as the city looks to fill the long-vacant patch of land and attract high-paying jobs to the area.

The city could also have another buyer for land at the park as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection seeks to negotiate with Redding over a yet-undetermined lot at the park and its current property on Cypress Avenue next to City Hall and the Redding Library. The City Council will consider the matter in closed session Tuesday night.

"Cal Fire has approached us with interest in relocation of their Cypress Street operations and move to potentially the Stillwater Business Park," Acting Assistant City Manager and Public Works Director Brian Crane said in an email.

Development Services Director Larry Vaupel will ask council members to consider a range of incentives to draw companies to Stillwater, including:

Increasing job credits from the current $5,000 maximum per job created

Exempt industrial and manufacturing companies from traffic impact fees. The city offers waivers that are considered on a case-by-case basis

Continue offering free land for employers that create a “substantial” number of jobs

Sales tax rebates for e-retailers or similar companies who generate sales tax

Property tax rebates

No-cost option to purchase land and sliding-scale purchase pricing to build-to-suit builders

Vaupel will also present a market analysis from Colliers International, which puts Redding behind the San Joaquin area, Bay Area and Sacramento for companies seeking to build.

“This analysis indicates that while Stillwater is one of a very few fully improved business parks offering shovel-ready sites in excess of 50 acres, there is significant competition in the form of standalone, large industrial parcels throughout California. Many of these parcels are located near an interstate freeway and are relatively close to the ports of Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach,” Vaupel said in a staff report. “In order to overcome these competitive disadvantages, our marketing efforts must target prospects less reliant upon being located in close proximity to ports and in the population centers of the Bay Area and Southern California.”

The Shasta County Grand Jury earlier this year pinned the cost of the park at $40 million so far, though the city disputed the jury’s report and claimed the cost is closer to $28 million.

CLOSE

Redding residents offer their opinions as the business park and the City Council consider a response to a critical Shasta County Grand Jury report.

Debt repayments on the bonds to build Stillwater are about $600,000 per year, Vaupel said.

“As important as it is to sell land in order to cover the debt service obligations, the main reason for the development of Stillwater Business Park was to attract quality jobs to our community. Revenue from property sales in Stillwater alone will not likely exceed the expenses of developing the park,” he said in the report. “Attracting companies to Stillwater that will employ a high number of our residents and pay above-average wages has always been the goal of the city. Over time, these jobs will produce direct and indirect benefits to our community far beyond the costs of developing the business park.”

Nothing’s been built at the park since it opened in April 2010.

Lassen Canyon Nursery, based in Redding, paid $840,000 for 16.75 acres in Stillwater in late 2015 and was moving forward with construction but suspended its expansion in March due to the uncertain economic climate in the berry-growing industry.

CLOSE

Lassen Canyon Nursery has decided to suspend its expansion to Stillwater Business Park.

City Manager Barry Tippin is also negotiating with East Coast firm H2 Renewables to buy 7 acres at the park. City officials have said they believe the firm would manufacture hydrogen fuel cells for electric vehicles.